Vegan Caesar Salad with Grilled Lettuce and Herby Croutons

This vegan caesar salad is extra special with creamy dressing, grilled lettuce and homemade herb croutons. It’s easy to make and perfect as a main meal or side dish.

Gardening

Try as I might, I’m not a gardener. I have visions of myself wafting about the garden, pruning with wild abandon, having some sort of idea what needs to be done. But truth be told, I am a serial plant killer.

I forget to water things; weeding is a necessity that I can’t be bothered with. I don’t completely blame myself though. It’s the little beasties that nibble everything that I plant that cause me such discouragement. I can’t seem to grow food for my table, and instead I grow buffets for slugs and snails. I’m nice to them like that.

I don’t have the stomach to pick them off and move them to another part of the garden, and I certainly wouldn’t want to hurt them, so I’ve resorted to asking them nicely to leave my kale alone. Here’s a gardening tip: slugs don’t understand gentle persuasion and reasoning.

Windowsill Harvest

There’s one place, however, where I can garden with a little more confidence (and a lot less talking to slugs): my kitchen windowsill.

Herbs are very easy to take care of, so I always have a few varieties on my windowsill, waiting to pep up meals. It’s hard to forget to water them when I’m so often at the sink getting water or filling the kettle anyway. I also like to grow lettuce. It’s fast-growing and you can cut it and it will quickly grow back. It’s easy gardening and a level that I can definitely handle. Plus, the slugs and snails can’t get to it.

Lettuce is one of those windowsill crops that is both simple and rewarding. It’s lovely to have a steady supply of salad leaves that couldn’t be any fresher. It also cuts down on wasteful packaging and saves a trip to the shops. There’s no long wait for harvest and not a lot of effort involved. It’s lazy gardening, and that’s just my sort.

Tips to Reduce Food Waste

Keep the root end of little gem and romaine lettuce, place it in a dish with a little water in a windowsill and it will regrow.

If your windowsill herbs are growing too big, chop some up and save them in ice cube trays with a little water or olive oil, perfect for soups and other meals.

If you’re trying to cut carbs, large lettuce leaves are a great substitute for bread rolls and wraps for burgers or falafels.

Add lettuce to soups; it will wilt and bring extra flavour and goodness.

Vegan caesar salad

It’s easy to whiz up this creamy vegan Caesar salad dressing in a blender. With just a handful of ingredients and a decadent base of soaked cashews, it becomes whirled into a dreamy, intense dressing that goes well over the smokey grilled lettuces. You could do this on a barbecue, a griddle pan on the hob or skip the step altogether. Though I’d definitely recommend you try it!

Herby croutons are a great way to use up slightly stale bread. You could cut the pieces of bread, but I like to tear it so the uneven surfaces char in the frying pan, adding more smokey flavours to the dish.

You will have lots of leftover dressing, so store it in the fridge. It’s also nice as a dip for raw vegetables.

Get the recipe!

A creamy vegan caesar salad dressing with grilled lettuce and herby croutons. Serves 2 as a main meal or 4 as a side dish.

Author: Kate @ Veggie Desserts

Serves: 2-4

Ingredients

50g (½ cup) raw unsalted cashews, soaked overnight

4 tbsp water

2 tbsp olive oil

3 tsp lemon juice

2 tsp capers

1 tsp wholegrain mustard

½ tsp garlic, crushed

Sea salt and black pepper

For the herby croutons

2 large slices of bread (slightly stale rustic loaf works best)

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp mixed herbs

To serve

2 little gem lettuces

1 tbsp olive oil

4 tsp nutritional yeast (optional)

2 tsp lemon juice

Instructions

Soak the cashews in a bowl of water overnight (or for at least 4 hours). Drain and rinse well.

In a high speed blender, blitz the drained cashews, water, oil, lemon juice, mustard, garlic and capers until smooth and creamy. If necessary, add a little more water, sparingly, to make it a thick drizzling consistency. Season with the salt and pepper.

For the herby croutons

Tear the bread into bite-sized pieces, then toss in a bowl with the olive oil and herbs to coat.

Heat a frying pan over a medium heat and pan fry the bread pieces until crispy.

To serve:

Heat a grill pan until hot.

Meanwhile, slice the little gem lettuces into quarters lengthways. Drizzle with the olive oil and use your hands to coat it thoroughly.

Place the lettuce quarters onto the hot grill pan and sear to create char lines.

Divide the lettuces onto plates, drizzle with the dressing and top with the croutons. Sprinkle with the nutritional yeast and enjoy immediately.

I made this vegan caesar salad dressing in my beloved Froothie Optimium 9400 high-speed blender. This post is not sponsored, but first appeared in my monthly food waste column in Vegetarian Living Magazine.

Comments

You’ve got some great tips here. With 3 teenagers in the house, I’m always looking for ways to make things stretch a little more, but I’m not really a gardener either. Those croutons look divine. Not sure they’d make it to the salad before they’d be all gone.

I do grow herbs on the windowsill but keep the lettuces in my garden. This recipe sounds wonderful and would make for a perfect lunch. I’ve never tried a dressing with capers and cashews and am intrigued how it must taste delicious. I will give this recipe a try soon.

You’re an even better gardener than me! I won’t even remember to water the windowsill plants either. I love plants and seeing them grow but have resorted to money plants because they are very forgiving. The rest can fend for themselves outside! Would love to try this creamy cashew sauce.

This makes lovely pictures and I am sure an even lovelier dish. Thank you for linking to #Inheritancerecipes. I think this is our very first vegan recipe on the challenge and certainly one to pass down to our health conscious teenagers.

This sounds and looks DIVINE!!!!! I need to try making this dressing as you have totally sold it to me – dreamy and intense… sounds like Tom Hardy! Thanks for hooking up with this month’s round of Simple and in Season.

Gardening is by no means easy. On top of the slugs, pigeons, voles and mice last year, we also had dear – very disheartening. This looks totally scrummy and the sort of salad I’d actually look forward to eating.

Find a recipe!

Hi, I’m Kate Hackworthy, a UK food blogger, food magazine columnist and cookbook author.
I’m unashamedly obsessed with vegetables, whether they’re in my breakfast, dinner or desserts! Looking for a recipe for a vegetable cake or veggie dessert? You’ve come to the right place. I also have vegetarian and vegan recipes for breakfast, snacks and meals.
Debut cookbook out now by Pavilion Books.kate@veggiedesserts.co.uk